The results are in

By late afternoon yesterday dh had a fever of 101. I got out that expired covid test kit and was going to give it a try, but it's the kind that you have to use with an app on your phone, so when I scanned the card in the kit, it said it expired and wouldn't work. I slept upstairs last night, just in case he's contagious. This morning his temp was 100. Still having a super bad headache, but the sinus congestion/headache medication helped some. Just plain tylenol did nothing to help.

I ran into town at 9 this morning and picked up a new Covid test at the pharmacy (they had one box on the shelf), along with more sinus medication. Welp, he tested positive for Covid, so it's very likely I'm going to get it soon, too. We had to have been exposed at the same time/place, wherever that was. Somewhere we were at Sunday. He had not been anywhere in at least a week or more. We had stayed home the previous weekend. I went to the town grocery store a week ago, but that was by myself. Since I haven't caught it at the same time as him, I'm likely now to get it from him.

So, I called my mom's place and let them know we had visited my mom for less than a half hour on Sunday and my dh has Covid. She said she will let the head nurse know and they will likely quarantine her for a bit. Then I called the clinic in town dh has been to once or twice before. I talked to a nurse, just to ask her what is the best to do for him with it. She said at this point, just tylenol/advil for the fever and aches and lots of rest and fluids. If he gets worse to call them or go to ER. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

If I do come down with it here in the next day or two, at least I have a long weekend and already had scheduled Tues and Wed off work, so hopefully I'd be past the worst of it by then. So far I'm not feeling anything. 

Dh didn't get a call back from our garbage service driver, but today was garbage day. He was a bit later this morning and dh heard him coming so walked out near the fence/gate to ask him about it. He said he did get the message and that he did have a valve leak and it's fixed. There was no stinky fluid dripped out this trip, so hopefully that's fixed. This was before I got back home with the test kit, so dh didn't know he had Covid, but he never got even close to the driver, probably 8-10 feet away.

Here's an interesting tidbit. The train tracks are on the other side of the river, like 750 feet from our house. But, when the train is going by it actually makes a vibration in our house! As the train is going by right now, the water in the water bottle on my desk is moving. Crazy that it has that effect that far away.

The end of summer

Well, summer is over, I think. Last evening the sky turned dark, the loudest thunder I've ever heard, some lightning and tons of rain. It's still drizzling this morning and today high will be 30 degrees lower than yesterday. It's not even supposed to make 60 today.

The state's property tax rebate deposited into my bank account yesterday. $675. We are supposed to get this this year and next. I am under no illusions that this is/was just bait and switch by our governor and politicians. Trying to assuage us while on the flip side our property taxes are going to go way up. With this recent assessment period they have moved even farther towards shifting the tax burden to residential homeowners, while reducing the property tax burden to business property.

Last night dh said he felt like he was getting a sore throat. Then during the night he was up a couple of times and then said he thinks he's sick. His head was pounding and he felt nauseous.  Ugh. He's an absolute whiner when he's sick. He got the lawn mowed on Monday so at least he won't be feeling like he needs to do that in the next couple of days (plus it's raining anyway) so hopefully he will just rest and it will pass soon.

I need to do a Teams training meeting with my assistant guy here shortly, as soon as he messages me back. It shouldn't take too long and I have also written up some instructions he will be able to refer back to in doing this process that will be new to him. Not sure what is taking so long for him to respond back, LOL. I emailed him t an hour ago, that I would be ready to start the meeting in 30 minutes and then I emailed him again with the documents we will be working from and let him know I was ready.

DH just got up and of course is the sickest. I say what do you think it is? "Covid". So, I took his temp and it's normal. I'm sure it's not covid. If he was exposed to it, it would have had to be Sunday and I was exposed to the same people. I guess we'll see if I come down with something soon, too. I know I have a few old Covid tests in the drawer (what? like 2 years old now?), but are they even good anymore? Do these old tests even test for whatever variation is out now? Regardless, whatever he has he has to go through it.

Well goodness, still no reply from my assistant. I'll give him 5 more minutes and I'll ping him again.

I'm ready for this week to be over (noon on Friday) and not back to work until next Thursday.

 

Christmas stuff

I don't think I mentioned that I did place an order with Temu last week, so we'll see how it goes. I used a credit card that I never use anymore. In fact I just got a notification in the mail that if I don't use it within so many weeks, they are going to close it, haha.

I mostly bought Christmas things, but I did buy a purse for 1.85, haha! Wonder how it will be?? the reviews were good. It was apparently that price for first time purchasers, I'm not quite sure how it all works. Also, for myself I ordered these 2 long banners that look like Christmas nutcracker soldiers. I've been kind of wanting real ones, but these will be much better, roll up and store with hardly any space taken up and can hang on each side of our patio, on the posts. I ordered a cute Christmas sign for my friend, who like Christmas 365 days of the year, that says "there once was a girl who loved Christmas, it was me. The end". I also ordered 2 sets of lego type kit to make a Christmas train. Says it has 260 pcs (tiny pieces, I'm sure). This will be for dh and his buddy in Texas. This year's Christmas challenge, haha. Last year his wife mailed up a gingerbread house kit with "competition rules" and the guys had fun with it. Figured it was my turn this year, so I figured they'd have fun doing lego's. I just need to figure out some "rules" for the competition. No clue yet what. I'll show the kits to dh when they arrive and see if he has any idea.

DD was at Costco last week and messaged me a picture of a puzzle related to Ft. Worth, so I told her to pick it up and that will be one of the gifts I send them this year. I also had her pick me up a Christmas puzzle for my Christmas loving friend to go with her sign. The puzzles were $10 each, which is a good price for puzzles. I will pick them up and pay dd when I am over there in a couple of weeks.

When I was waiting in line to check out at Lowes, I noticed some magazines and one was recipes for cast iron skillet cooking. That gave me an idea for a Christmas gift for dd's husband. He likes to cook with cast iron, so I think I'll get him a cookbook with recipes. 

I didn't end up getting my email reply back to the assessor until this morning as I was busy with  payroll yesterday. It sounds like he's now having to spend Mon-Thurs out in the field. Must be lots to re-assess! haha. I love how he's still trying to justify our increase. His latest was telling me that our neighbors at the end of the street basically increased in total the same as we did (for land and buildings value combined). Them at 51%, us at 52%. I had to remind him, AGAIN, that their increase includes adding TWO detached garages. So, I asked what is just the value you have on their house? What is the % just their house increased, not including the value of the garages? I'll bet it's in the % range as our other neighbors house increased at 18%.

DH was outside cleaning some gutters and heard coyotes, so he's not letting the cat out today. Lot's of very upset and sad meowing going on, LOL.

Groundhog day

We got our visit with my mom and other stops done yesterday. I'm seriously going to have to just start telling dh a time 10 or 15 minutes earlier than I want to leave now. He waits until it's time to leave to suddenly have to be in the bathroom for 5 or 10 minutes, then it's another couple of minutes getting his wallet and his gun (he conceal carries). He has never been late in his life until this past year. And if I mention it, even joking, he gets totally defensive saying "I'm not late!". Yes, you are! Walking out the door 10 minutes after the time we were supposed to leave is late.

First we stopped at Lowe's. He wanted a couple of lawn irrigation boxes. I guess he's thinking ahead to outside Christmas decor time and wants something to put the inflatable's cords in. I'm not sure...maybe so they don't get buried in snow and he can get to where they are plugged into the extension cord. He also was in need of a couple of new hoses. We had bought good quality hoses many many years ago and they certainly lasted a long time, but they are finally wearing out. Then he was walking by a small shopvac on sale. He's been wanting a new shop vac for quite awhile. Again, the one he has (Sears craftsman) was bought so many years ago - like 35 years? LOL. He takes care of things so they last a long time, but at some point ya gotta replace. He's still going to use the old one for wood sawing dust.

Then we went to see my mom. It was so quiet there, just a little after 1. Almost everyone was in their rooms, as was my mom. She seemed good, at least dressed normal this time. I stocked up her boxes of tissues she goes through and we went and sat out in the lounge seating area for a little visit. Nothing new to add - it's like groundhog day movie every visit. I don't think she first knew who I was when I knocked on her door and walked in. I goofed and forgot to say "hi Mom" and just said hi how are you? and I could kind of see some confusion in her face, trying to figure out who I was.

Next stop was Cabela's. DH decided to use his gift cards on some new work boots/shoveling snow boots. He did go back to the firearms dept to ask if they had the gun he's been wanting, but they didn't have it in stock, but the guy explained how he could go online and order it and it would then be delivered to the store to came back and pick up/do the background check. Or the guy also showed him, how on Cabela's website they also sell used guns and there were several available through that he could order. I looked through their women's clothing dept and could not find any short sleeve plain t-shirts, only long sleeve.

Then we picked up our groceries at the Walmart nearby there. We only had to wait a couple minutes. It was then almost 3pm. We were down on the south end of town, so probably an extra 10 or so minutes to get back to the interstate to head home. We were both a little hungry so stopped in Wendy's drive thru for an early dinner to eat on the way home. I kind of lost my energy about 5 minutes before home, LOL. Dh unloads the groceries to the kitchen and I put away. Since I didn't need to make dinner, around 5:30 pm I took a nap for about an hour.

Around 10:15 last night we get a reverse 911 call that there is an armed suspect on the loose in our area, to stay inside. Good grief. From what dh was able to find out a little bit later was someone from out of state was at the bar in town and shot 2 people and fled. Our little town has like 600 people. I don't think those that frequent the bar on a Sunday night expect something like that around here, but it's sadly everywhere now, I guess. You can't even be safe in a tiny town any more. Then the phone had to ring again at 12:30am when they notified the alert was over. 

I hadn't even looked to see what the weather is supposed to be like this coming week. It was in the mid 80's this weekend and I see we will get 2 more days of that and then Wed is down to 60 for a high. Big drop and then mid 70's after that. 

Today is payroll processing day, so I will be busy with that and for sure the day will go by quickly. I've already planned for what's for dinner tonight. Some chicken sandwiches with corn on the cob. I don't know why I have not bought any corn on the cob this summer, but did get some with this grocery order, so that should be delicious.

Ok, heading back downstairs to get some breakfast. I bought some cranberry/orange muffins, so I am having one of those yummy things.

Funerals and such

Linda's post about her friend being close to death made me think of a few things. Like, when my mom passes, I really have no idea what to do with her cremated remains. My step dad was cremated and she ended up spreading his ashes basically in their backyard and on the golf course (where he spent a lot of time, that's why they moved there) just on the other side of her fence. She had always told me she wanted her ashes spread there with him. But, in the last couple of years, before she moved (and didn't have dementia) she knew that the golf course was being turned into a housing development in a couple of years and then of course, she wasn't staying in her place, so she told me she didn't know what she wanted me to do with her ashes.

I am not someone who would want to keep them. Her parents have a niche together (they pre bought all this years before they passed) at a cemetery. When her older brother died (before his parents) they placed him at the same cemetery, in a different area. I can't remember if he was buried or cremated. This cemetery is back where we used to live, so I suppose I could get a niche to put her remains in, there. Or I could just get something like that here, at the cemetery. When our long time friends, moved to Texas, her mom passed away (in another state) so she ended up getting a niche near where they live in Texas, since there were no relatives left where her mom had lived. I have thought I could let her ashes go into the river, and this river actually goes back to the state she was from, so it will carry her back there. There will be no funeral.

Originally my parents had burial plots where my step dads parents are buried, but later they decided they wanted to be cremated and they sold the plots. 

My family is probably weird, but we are apparently not funeral type people, LOL. I had never even been to a funeral until I was 18, an extremely small (like me, my mom and the woman's sister and daughter and a couple other people) funeral. Then my grandma died (bio dads mom) the same year and she had the full catholic funeral, but she was from a small town where she knew everyone. But my mom's side of the family, we've never had funerals. We have such a small family and my grandparents didn't socialize much. When my grandpa died he was cremated and I think we just had a very small family gathering. When my step dad died, no funeral, even though he knew a ton of people. He didn't want one. He was cremated and then my mom had a little gathering in the clubhouse where they lived with family and a few of his closest friends. When my grandma (mom's mom) died, she was cremated and put in the niche with my grandpa. After that was done it was just my mom, me and my family, and a cousin who lived near, and we met at the cemetery and just remembered her for a short visit. I think my uncle probably came, but I can't remember now.

When dh's mom died a few years ago they did have a funeral, but again, just super small with some family. She and my FIL didn't have friends or socialize. When my FIL passed a few months after they didn't have a funeral (not sure if that was his wishes or what) and his cremated remains were interred back here (where they had lived for many years and dh and 2 brothers live, too) in the Veteran's cemetery and dh's mom's remains were also placed with him. We do go leave flowers once or twice a year.

I know myself and dh have no desire for funerals. Again, small family and few friends. Plus, I think the older you get the less friends are left by old age, anyway. 

Over the years I have been to several funerals or memorial services. All for friends that passed too young. One was a huge memorial service that was held where there were some grandstands to fit all the people, probably a thousand. DH was also one of the speakers and he did a wonderful job. When dh's best friend died of cancer about 11 years ago, he had a funeral. He was also half Native American and there was a second very very moving Indian ceremony for family and a few closest friends a couple weeks later. That is one I will never forget.

My grandparents did it best. They had prepaid for it all years earlier. Everything already picked out and planned. We just had to go to the funeral home and they told us what they had wanted/picked out and it was so nice and easy not to have to make decisions.

Just more questions

So, yesterday the assessor sent me a small file of land sales for river properties in our area. Hmmm.....very interesting information. I was looking it over (just 17 sales) and was like WTF?!! So, he has been telling me that the reason our land value for the 7 lots in our subdivision went up 113% was because of the price DAN paid for lots 4 and 5. The assessors are using 2020 and 2021 sales data. And he says because DAN's purchase was AFTER the couple that bought lot 6 in our subdivision, they are using that price. Lots 1-6 are all basically the same 2 acre lots. Lot 7 is 3 acres. Lots 1-6 are all assessed the same value, lot 7 a little higher. DAN paid $156k for each lot (he's a freaking idiot). The couple that bought lot 6 a year earlier paid just $100k. Same exact lot.

Four of the sales data for land sales he sent me are in this other subdivision of like 40 or so lots along a hairpin turn of the river, kind of like a peninsula sticking out. Plus these lots are all low bank. One couple bought a 1.36 lot for $150k, the other 3 lots ranging from 1.2 acres to 2.2 acres, sold between $105k and $132k (the 2.2 acre lot). The lot that sold for $150k is now assessed at $146k.....yet all the lots on either side of them (and the whole subdivsion, for the most part) did NOT go up to $146k...No, the lot right next door to them, same exact size? It's new assessed value is $112k. What the.....?  Why didn't those neighboring lots have to go up to that $146k assessed values due to the sale next door, like ours did, due to DAN buying next to us? This right here is what I am going to fight tooth and nail on. Their assessing excuses and reasons are not consistent at all.

The next thing that was finally explained to me, after asking several times how our neighbors very nice 5112 sf house is valued way less than our 3735 sf house, is that their basement, which is half the sq footage of their house, is valued at MUCH less than the main floor of the house. It's valued at $45,500....$18/sf ft?! Ok, so I get the reasoning that it doesn't cost more to build the frame of the house to include a basement, so the basement is valued less......but shouldn't that same principle hold for making attic space into living area? That's what our house is. It did not cost us anymore to build the main framing and roofing of the house to put living areas in the attic space, other than the cost of adding dormers. So shouldn't our attic space be assessed at less per square foot, just as a basement is? That is my next question to him.

I went to submit my grocery order for pick up Sunday at 2-3pm and they have no times available tomorrow. Geez! they always have times, even on same day. Nothing available until Monday. But, we are also going to Cabelas, which is on the other side of town and there is another Walmart over there, like maybe a half mile or so from Cabelas and they have all their time slots available, so we will just pick up our order there tomorrow after going to Cabelas. But, at least this Walmart location has ice cream in stock, LOL.

I've got bed sheets drying in the dryer and a load of my clothes now in the wash. DH is outside/in his shop doing something. I see he has one of the roll up doors open. Last week we ordered 6 5 gallon jugs to store water in and those are supposed to deliver today. Then we will have 30 gallons of water on hand for power outage (when well goes out too) or other emergency.

Oh, I see from my email that FedEx did deliver about 20 minutes ago, so that must be what dh is doing out in the shop, getting those filled up. I need to go out and water my hanging baskets and the pots that sit under the overhang of the garage and shop. We got a nice little rain yesterday, but those flowers don't get the rain.

I'm so glad we are not entertaining today! I need time to relax after working all week and before we are busy half the day tomorrow.

Woo hoo Friday!

I went to town yesterday during my lunch break to get milk and a few things from the store. It was really quiet in town. The grocery store parking lot is usually pretty full, but hardly any cars. I also picked up some ground beef and chicken breasts, bananas and tortilla chips. The ground beef I used for dinner last night to make dh some nachos. The night before, when I was trying to figure out what to make, I ended up making pancakes and bacon. I had a little bit of bacon in the freezer, so that got used up. I always make my pancakes from scratch and they are so good (have melted butter and vanilla in the mix) and fluffy. Tonight and tomorrow I used the chicken for dinner and then Sunday we'll be stocked back up with food.

I had started my pick up order with walmart online and was going to add vanilla ice cream. They seem to be totally out of stock on ice cream. Weird. I usually just buy the great value vanilla bean 48oz that is only $2.67. I looked at the ice cream at our little town store. OMG! No way was I paying $8 or $9 for some ice cream! A lot of their prices are really ridiculous, which is why I don't shop there too much.

On my way to town I pass by our little county airport and there was this huge helicopter sitting there. I've never seen one that large and it looked like a gigantic mechanical bug LOL. I told dh about it when I got home and he said that's a Sikorsky. So, then last night he wanted to drive by and see it, so we took a little drive. It's a Sikorsky Skycrane, for the fire fighting management. Here's a picture I found online and yep, it really does look like a big bug

Welp - it's Friday again already! The weeks are still going by really fast. I am looking forward to the next weekend, Labor Day, as I'm also taking an additional 2 days off after Labor Day. Plus I think next Friday, because it's a holiday weekend, our office is closing at noon. 

Thankfully we don't have plans this weekend.......we almost did yesterday, LOL. These new friends who've come over a few times in the past 2 months, well she texted me yesterday that she had thought her dh made plans for them to come over this weekend, again...but then when she asked him yesterday he said he never talked to my dh, LOL. So, I think she was kind of trying to feel me out about coming over. I just said oh, I don't think my dh knew anything about that! But, we are busy Sunday as we have to go see my mom and do errands while in the city. Kinda hoping that would be that for now and then she said well maybe we can just come over for the day Saturday. I said my dh would try to call her dh and they did end up talking later yesterday afternoon. It sounds like she had been the one trying to get him to come over again and he wasn't really feeling like doing anything/spending the gas money, etc, so they are not coming. 

I hate to be rude, and while they are super nice people, dh and I just aren't ones that want company and want to entertain every 2-3 weeks! Like every couple of months or so would be fine. And we don't much like making plans too far in advance because we never really know how dh is going to feel from one day to the next. Dh kind of told him that on the phone yesterday about how it's hard for us to plan ahead much and that we usually just see how he (and even me sometimes) is feeling and usually decide to do stuff maybe a day or two in advance. Like, just me planning us to go see my mom, go to Cabela's and then pick up groceries (and likely stop to get fast food), I will let him know a couple days in advance, because then he can sorta try to take it easy at least the day before. For example, if he spent half the day outside doing yardwork/mowing on Saturday, it would be very unlikely he'd feel like doing all that on Sunday.

 

Papers be gone and other interesting finds

Yesterday I did a little bit more decluttering of old papers in my office. Going forward I'm thinking of trying to just scan any papers I want/need to save and then throwing out the paper. I have a nifty scanner and my computer backs up to the cloud regularly. No reason to even have most of the paperwork I do have in my desk and storage bins. I just need to figure out a good way to organize the folders on my computer so I can find what I'm looking for if/when needed.

I might even try to scan some old folders in my filing cabinet. Most of it is all old tax returns! I do have the returns saved, too, on my computer, for many past years, but not the supporting paperwork. I think I may try scanning one years folder and see if it's easy to do. Then shred the folder. Plus, some of it is more than 7 years old and I should just be able to shred anyway, as it's past audit timeframe.

I just pulled a large group of folders out - so far it's tax returns and FAFSA college stuff from 9-10 years ago. No need/reason to keep any more. I got on a roll with the big stack and now have a big pile to just go in the garbage and another smaller pile to get shredded, as the stuff has ss#'s on it. I've now shredded half of it.

And I came across something interesting, that I didn't remember being done. It was a copy of DPOA for my mom, from 2013, where she listed me as DPOA and my step brother as secondary, if I was unable. I don't remember this (this is when our son went off the rails and we were consumed by that), but it was obviously at the same time (about a year after my step dad passed) she had me go with her to her bank to add me to her accounts, added me to her retirement/investment account and gave me a copy of her new will (where she had me at 100%). She must have given me the DPOA copy at the same time. Huh. So, when someone gets revoked as DPOA you are required to send them a certified letter, yet it 2018, when step brother and her BF got her to change everything, and gave him DPOA, I was not notified. When we changed it from him to me, back in 2019, we sent him a notarized and certified letter revoking it. Just another thing that convinces me they did this behind my back.

My mom was very organized with her papers, so she would have had this DPOA with her will and paperwork when her BF and my step brother got involved, not to mention her attorney, who changed her will, would have had copies of what she had previously done in 2013. I think it was the same attorney, but I'd have to go through what I have to see. It's also likely that attorney did do up a revocation letter to remove me, but that step brother did not send it.

An annoying morning

I'm just going along, minding my business and all of a sudden on of my programs with work stopped working. GAH! I tried to figure it out myself, for a good hour or so, but in order to update the .exe file to the latest version, I need "admin" rights, which that has to be done by our IT company, so now I have a help ticket it to them. And a headache from it all, LOL. So, while I wait for an IT guy to call me, I'll take a break and do a blog post.

I had tried to call my mom yesterday but no luck. Then she called me a little after 10 this morning Good! I say "hello?" and she says is this Helen? Ahhh darn. That is her mom's name, not my name. I tell her who I am and she then seems to know, but says she still needs to try to get a hold of her mom, she hasn't talked to her in awhile....have I talked to her? No, not in awhile, I say. And then she asks me if I know if her mom is doing ok and I just say yes, she's doing good. Ok, not really I lie, because I believe my grandma is in heaven and doing perfect now. Then I said "how are you doing" and that seemed to change the subject while we were on the phone a couple minutes.

Someone from our IT called me right away and now the issue is fixed. The program file apparently needed an update but it had to be done with IT Admin rights, which only they can do. It took us abouty 35 minutes on the phone, but now it's fixed. I think I used up my work energy already today.

Not much else going on. Trying to decide what to make for dinner. The pickens are slim until I get restocked up with food, but there are choices. And a good way to get some stuff used up. I think it's mostly that nothing really sounds that good.

Tuesday this and that

I mentioned to dh yesterday that I'm going to need to go pick up groceries some time this week, I don't think I can make it until this weekend, I'll run out of milk. He's been wanting to go to the city to Cabela's to use giftcards he got for Christmas. Well, a mom visit, a Cabela's visit and picking up groceries won't work for a long lunch break, LOL. Or we just go an evening. But I think we decided that tomorrow or Thursday we'll just run into our town grocery store for milk and a few things and then go to the city this weekend, when we have more time. Probably Sunday afternoon. I may look for a couple of tops at Cabela's. I just buy inexpensive colored tshirts like at Kohl's or Target and maybe get a couple years wear, at the most. I could use a couple more as one has a hole in it from the cat's claw snagging me and another is wearing out.

It rained all day yesterday, but seems to have stopped and maybe a little more this afternoon. Looks like we're going to have a little sun today and a nice temp of 75. Hopefully most of the hot days are behind us.

Our house phone rang yesterday. It hardly ever rings, but we have to have it. Our phone company won't just supply internet only. Anyhow, it was a wrong number and she thought she was calling the city office in our town. I looked up their number and it's one number off of ours, so that explains it. I'm surprised we don't get more of those calls, LOL. I suppose we could just not have the landline phones plugged in, but dh still likes to use them sometimes, though it's getting less that he does.

My life insurance company got their data breached so I guess they are offering 2 years of identity monitoring for free. I'll probably sign up. I did cancel the Lifelock account I had set my mom up on a couple years ago, when she was taking calls and not for sure if she gave out her personal info or not. She can't do that now and I keep an eye on everything she has for accounts. She has one credit card that a few of her monthly bills are charged to and if that got hacked, it would be covered anyway with their theft protection. I also have her credit locked down, so no one could open anything in her name. This was reminding me of her always hiding and then looking for her purse and wallet and things in her wallet. Thank goodness that is passed and she's not stressing over her purse. She hasn't even mentioned her purse since I took it (before she moved, I think it was). 

I'm thinking of emailing/messaging the real estate agent (now a broker) we used on all our purchases/sell here. Just to tell him I am in the process of appealing our property tax valuation and with his real estate expertise/experience ask if he has any tips for me in the process....maybe he would? He's a super nice guy and I know if he had any suggestions he'd be happy to pass them along. I guess it can't hurt to ask.

DH has always followed the real estate listings/market for years. He said what he is noticing just very recently in our half of the state, that he watches, is a lot of "ranches" suddenly being put on the market. I put these in quotations because these aren't (edited as I had accidentally typed "are") real rancher's or ranches. They are large acreage owned by rich people (from out of state of course) who think they are ranching, because they come vacation on it in their 10,000 sf house, every so often, have a real ranch hand, who actually runs the "ranch". Anyhow, he's suddenly seeing quite a few go on the market in the last month and is wondering what is going on. Is the "Yellowstone" mystique wearing off, now?

Sweet rain

Ahhh, woke up to wonderful rain this morning. It's supposed to rain all day with a high of only 66. Right now it's just a light steady rain, but the forecast says there may be areas/times today with heavy rainfall of 1-3 inches per hour. Hopefully this is a huge help to the fire north of us. 

Have any of you ordered anything from Temu before? good? bad? I came across this cute sign I want to get a friend for her Christmas gift this year. I found the same thing on other sites, like Amazon for double the price, so thought I might give ordering from this site a try. 

I made the cake after lunch yesterday. Yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting. Yum, with a little ice cream on the side. I had 2 cake mixes in my pantry and on past date a few months. Eh...big deal, LOL. It was all fine. We're still alive this morning :)

I'm not getting very far this morning, getting this post up. Now it's 11am and I try to come back to it and slogging along, it appears.

I'm just so happy it's still raining lightly. We sure need it.

I just tried to call my mom and she's not in her room. I'll try to remember to try again after lunch.

I thought I was going to have to participate in a couple of meetings this morning, but my boss messaged me saying I didn't have to join, so that is good. When I got the invites last week, I didn't think I really needed to be involved, but since my boss was out last week, she wasn't available to confirm with.

My cat just came into my office meowing and hopping sideways towards me. About halfway to me he jumps and swats in the air and then he runs and jumps up on my desk and swats me. I don't know what he's mad about, LOL, but he's taking it out on me. I think he wanted to go outside and then saw the wet and change his mind.

Blueberry muffin Sunday

The past week or so, I have been watering my flowers in the mornings instead of the evenings. I don't know why, but it seems to help my back not hurt when I'm done. I felt like I kept busy all morning yesterday, but not sure doing what, LOL. I did get a grocery order figured out and added to my cart, I just haven't picked a day yet and apparently it's not going to be today, haha. So, I will have to either go in later this week, by taking a long lunch or take off work a little early and go in. 

I vacuumed downstairs. DH's den sure had a bunch of cat hair everywhere. I need to vacuum that area more, since he hangs out there a lot. I have an old rocking chair in the corner of my bedroom that the cat sleeps on all night and the cushion gets covered in his fur. The attachment on my Shark vacuum does a great job at getting it up, but it will be covered in fur in no time again.

Yesterday he was chipmunk watching. The chipmunks like the rockery and that's where you usually see them. The bears head is a favorite spot of his to sit.

A few days ago when I was out watering I pulled my calf muscle again, somehow. Just like around same time last year that hurt for months. Until finally I realized it was connected to plantar fasciitis and started stretching my foot and it cleared up. It was hurting a lot yesterday and I even wrapped the heating pad around my calf try to help. DH is like what did you do now? This time I am working on stretching my foot often. So far this morning my calf isn't hurting as much. 

I decided to take a nap around 2:15. Usually I'm awake by 3:30 at the latest. I kept dreaming that I was awake (though in a different place/people) but I couldn't wake up all the way and kept trying to wake up and get my eyes to stay open. Finally I really woke up - it was 4:30. Geez! LOL.

Early evening the winds shifted from east to south and our skies were filled with smoke and the air particle went up to like 168. It's still really smokey this morning. Now the weather alert is for tomorrow. Heavy rains coming from Hurricane Hilary, from California. But, hopefully enough to put out all these fires.

After dh got up this morning I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. While those were baking I descaled my keurig. My options were purchasing a $7 or $8 bottle of solution or just using around 25 cents of white vinegar and some water and doing it that way. Of course you know which way I did it. Now it's all done and the descaling light is out.

I need to check my hummingbird feeders, but I'm pretty sure the last fill up was the last of the season. I have not seen any around this past week and they usually start heading south from our area mid to late August or so. I might fill up one more time today with fresh nectar, just in case there are a few around. 

It's 10:15 and I already feel a nap coming on today. Maybe I'm just tired because I ate breakfast so late, from getting up at like 7:30 and only having a cup of coffee until 10am. That probably wasn't the best thing to do.

I broke another glass. Nothing to do with my hands this time. I had a bunch of stuff in the sink and this kind of tall skinny old glass was out near the edge of the sink where the inside of the bottom of the sink starts to curve up a bit towards the side and as I dumped a big bowl with water out, the water tipped over the glass. I have a mismatched bunch of glasses over the years. 3 different sets now. That one that broke was the last one of a different set of 4. We use a lot of glasses in one day. Well, dh does. I typically use one regular sized for breakfast and a small juice type glass for dinner. DH uses like 2 or 3 big glasses a day. I'm down to like 8 or 9 glasses left, so I think I'll add an inexpensive set from Walmart to my grocery order. What I have left isn't enough to fill up the dishwasher and we are running out before it's time to run the dishwasher and I keep having to hand wash. I'd rather just have enough to be able to run the dishwasher every 2-3 days.

I'm being a wimp

Our area did not get the high winds, but another area near us did and a huge huge hire started next to the little town. As the crow flies it's only like 20 miles north of us, but mountains in between, so to actually drive there you have to drive like 45 minutes. Last night the wind was blowing towards that direction, so we didn't get the smoke from it. It sounds like they evacuated the small town of less than 200. Starting tomorrow our temps are supposed to stay down in the 70's.

I have my grocery order entered online, I just haven't picked out a pickup time/date. I just do NOT feel like going this weekend. Minimum I'd have to go by mid/late next week. Milk is really the only thing I will run out of and there's probably enough left until at least Wednesday. Ugh. I am procrastinating. 

The guy who owns lot 6 did not return my call from the other day, darn it. Oh well, I did find the original MLS listing for it. They bought it in Sept 2020 and it was listed for $105k. Same exact lot as DAN's 4 and 5 he purchased in Sept 2021. But he paid over $156K per lot. The sales data they use is 2020 and 2021. Dh seems to remember they paid like $100k or even less. But certainly not more than $105k. It has been for sale for 2-3 years. Why isn't that used as one of the comps for valuing the lots in this subdivision? I wonder what Mr. Assessor's "opinion" is on the question of why this lot sold for so much less? (yet they are now valuing us all the same at $149,500 per lot.). I'm sure now he'll have a totally new spin on his explanation. And since the beginning I have been asking why both our neighbors  went up so much less than our house and have gotten zero answer. Conveniently, he keeps ignoring that question, which tells me a lot. Well, if he won't answer it, and won't adjust our value to the same % theirs increased, with no good reason, then I guess the county tax appeal board (the next step) will have to explain it to me.

Cake, I think I just need to make a cake, haha. That makes things better.

Fast Friday

I really can't seem to get a grip lately on how fast Friday's seem to come. It's not like I'm any busier than before. I don't get it. Dh says it's because I'm getting old, LOL. It's just the past month I've felt like this. But, yes, I am getting old. Before it would happen some weeks, like a super busy week, or I had a day off during the week. But now it feels like every few days it's Friday again.

Weather is cooler and cloudier today by about 20 degrees, but they are still predicting the winds this evening. It's been a little breezy today, but nothing bad yet. Still smells very smokey outside. Keeping the cat inside today due to smoke and to make sure he's not still out there when the winds start up. I have both my phone and ipad fully charged. We have the bathtub filled with water in case the power goes out and we'll have some water to flush the toilet with. Dh decided to get the lawn mowed this afternoon, since it's a bit cooler out now.

Our retired friend with the black lab puppy stopped by this morning. She is getting big! He brought over a ziploc bag of cherry tomatoes from his garden. 

I need to get in and visit my mom again and more groceries, so I'm thinking Sunday, I guess. For some reason I just do not feel like going anywhere, but I can't wait another week, as I'll be out of stuff to eat. DH wore his computer keyboard out and luckily I had an extra on hand. I think it was from my mom's computer. I'm surprised he doesn't wear out keyboards more often, as much as he types, LOL. 

Welp, that's all I've got for right now. I am getting caught up at work, week by week. Today I finished up everything for May's financial reports and now on to June. Almost caught up. I should be able to get June done in a week or so and then July by early Sept and basically caught up.  

Oops. I thought I posted this hours ago, LOL, but it's still open on my computer. Better late than never, I suppose.

Just GRRRRR....

The sepia sky yesterday morning turned out to be from smoke. Ugh. It was pretty heavy all day yesterday, along with being 98 degrees. I was just out watering my flowers this morning and it's not as smokey as it was when I went out yesterday afternoon. We are under a weather alert/fire danger all day tomorrow for winds that are expected. Hot, winds and fire - a bad combination.

I ended my work day yesterday with a headache over my eye and feeling a bit nauseous. I made a quick and easy dinner of salmon, though I gave most of my piece to dh to eat and then took a nap for a couple hours, along with some Tylenol. 

A news article came through my feed yesterday, about our state property tax system. It was an interview with the former head of the state's dept of revenue. He was the longest head they've had, from 2005 to 2013. He says the system is rigged and broken. He and some others spoke to a group of a hundred or so. Pretty bad when the former head person says this, eh?

Yesterday I called and closed out that checking account I had set up online, in order to earn the $325 bonus. It was a quick call, so that was good. 

I just got a call from an independent company the place my mom lives (they have several facilities in several states) to see if I would answer some questions to rate where she lives, her care, etc. I gave them a 5 on everything, except the move in process, I said 4, because there was really no one that day who welcomed her or took charge of helping her get settled. But, other than that I have been very happy with her care there. The staff is nice and the place is really clean and safe. Well, it better be for the cost per month! LOL. It's interesting how different views people can have of the same place. My neighbor had her mom there, in m/c, quite a few years ago and was very happy with her care there. But, they have a friend who had her husband there and she wasn't happy at all with the care. They said she was there every single day, so I'm guessing that has a lot to do with it. When you are there that much you are going to be hyper aware of every little thing going on. It sounds like she was always complaining and I'm sure being there, hovering over the staff, would make it hard for them to do their job. I think her husband's death was the reason there was an opening earlier than anticipated for my mom. My mom is cared for and safe. I'm not going to nitpick that she has on 3 tops, LOL.

We've been meaning to make a list of things we would want to take, in case we ever face an emergency evacuation. I made my list and told dh he can make his own list. He was laughing that the cat is 3rd on my list, haha.

So, this assessor is starting to annoy me. I'm tired of his stupid and vague explanations. The sales data they are using is sales from 2020 and 2021. He is telling me the reason our land values went up 113% is because of the sales of lots 4 and 5 next to us, sold in 2021. Those lots sold for $156,000 each (DAN paid way too much, LOL). Lot 6 (same exact size) was sold to a couple, in 2020, for I think around $100k. Why wouldn't that data be taken into consideration? or at least use a mid range between the prices? I called the owner of lot 6 and left him a voicemail that I am appealing our property tax increase and was wondering if he would mind sharing how much he paid for the lot? I told him if he doesn't want to share that info, that is totally fine, but I'm just trying to get as much data as I can.

Then he used one of my examples of a river lot just a bit down river from us. Said it sold for $115k mid year 2020, so that is why the lots there in that neighborhood (and EVERY lot in our county? LOL) didn't got up as much as ours did. And his "opinion" the reason it sold for less than what DAN paid is because they are close to the railroad tracks. OMG! You CANNOT live on the river here in our county without being next to or across the river from the tracks. And guess what? that property he thinks sold for less due to being near the railroad? it's 1500 ft from the tracks with NO view of the train as it goes by. We are 690 feet from the tracks and can see it going by (a little between the trees on the other side). Good grief.

So apparently the sale of the 2 lots next to us are not being used as a comp for valuing river lots RIGHT in our own zipcode/town, yet my house is being comp'd to homes 200 miles away. He also wanted to verify the info they have for our house: 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, crawl space, central heating with AC. I am drafting an email back to him with my above opinions and also saying, yes, the info you have on our house is correct. In August of 2019, 2 months after our house was completed, an assessor showed up. We answered his questions, gave him info on our cost to build AND let him inside the house to see what it has, as well as he measured the attic living space, so that we would be accurate for our assessment.

GRRRR!! He doesn't get to make assessments based on his "opinion" ie guesses, as to why something sold for what it did.

 

 

 

 

Just ugh

I spent 2 hours on the phone yesterday with the IT from my side job. I spent a half hour just explaining to him how I log in and access the accounting software. He kept wanting to think it was on on my computer hardrive here at home. I'm like no...I log into the VPN and access a "desktop" there that has the program. It's not on my personal computer. Then he was asking questions I don't really know the details on and I was like I'm not sure, your company is the one that set me up to log in like this, LOL. Finally he figured out how I log in and then another hour and half figuring out the actual issue. But, it's working now.

It's a weird sky outside this morning. It's like sepia tones out there. Still going to be very hot today. 

The assessor replied back. I had given 2 examples out of their sales data (not used as his comps) of 2 places on the river in my actual area that sold. One is very comparable to us in square feet, lot size (though they are low bank and can access the river), a shop similar size and it's assessed at less than our house. He replied back this morning that the shop wasn't in the sales price. I replied back with a link to their listing description and pics (still on many sites, though not active of course, since it sold) and its specifically lists the shop and has it in their pictures. So, yes, it certainly was included in their sales price. Anyway, I replied back this morning with that info and a link to the listing for the property. I also told him that my issue isn't comparing one homes value to another, because your formulas can make it all match. I said I even will accept that somehow my neighbors home is worth much less than mine.....my issue/question is why did our land value increase 113% while every other river lot in our area increased by half that or less. Why did our neighbors home/building value only increase 17% and ours 44.25%? Why did our other neighbors value WITH 2 added buildings last year, increase 38%, compared to our 44.25%. Why did another nice home just down river only increase 10%? It just needs to be fair and equitable. I would just like an explanation of why ours went up so high and just showing me "comps" doesn't explain why my neighbors house went up 17% when their house is just as much the same comps to be used as mine has!

I find it hilarious (in a totally maddening way) that all the "spin" on these increased assessments has been "well, your taxes won't "likely" go up that much", "well, it's up to the counties to determine their budget and they can only increase so much" blah blah blah. Yet the council in the large city near us just put out their new budget for next year and want to increase it by 10%......well sure, they now have the figures in from Dept of Revenue of what their income will be from the property taxes now, so sure...let's spend it! I know our county will do the same. A couple years ago, (during last assessment) a very large company in our county had their taxes go way up due to all the improvements they made after they bought the company. Like they got assessed at an additional 10 million dollars. So, of course the county had that in their budget a couple months later to spend. The company appealed it and got it down to like 3 million or something. Then a few weeks later they said a big F-you to our county and closed the doors (they were owned by a bigger company out of state). 100 jobs lost in this county of 4000 people. Then our county had to re-do/re-certify their budget because of course now they weren't getting any of the tax money from this company.

Last night we noticed that the pilot light in our gas fireplace was out. 3 hours later, at midnight, dh got it working again, but he has no idea why it suddenly started working when all the attempts for 3 hours did not, LOL.

I'm hoping for an uneventful day where nothing goes wrong today. Is that too much to ask? I'm starting to feel overwhelmed and just want to go bury my head under the covers and ignore everything and every body.

Hi temp Tuesday

I find it interesting that my mom is calling me a lot and remembering how to do it, while at the same time seems to be getting worse. She called last evening at 7:15. Super chatty, we talked for almost 20 minutes, when usually it's just a few minutes. Of course some of it was repeated, but not terrible. Though seconds after I answered she said "I'm so glad you called". She knew she lives where she's at this time and knew she didn't have a car anymore, but couldn't remember getting rid of it. She said a couple of times she really likes this place and then said and I love that I have such a great dau...daughter...right? you're my daughter? After I said yes, then she asked "so I had you?" I said yep! A long time ago! She laughed and said she guessed she doesn't remember it and must be because she's getting older now. 

Due to the extreme heat we are under fire weather watch until Thursday night. It was 99 yesterday and very dry around our area, since it's mid August.

DH was outside later in the evening for awhile. I think he went out to turn on or off a sprinkler he has set up behind our shop, which faces Mr & Mrs side. I can't remember why dh has a sprinkler there and not the underground, LOL. Anyway, I guess Mrs was outside too, so she started chatting with dh again. She said they want to start fertilizing their own lawn and asked dh what he uses and when, so dh told her he'd look up his notes on the fertilizer. It's a different mixture in spring than summer. So, then he emailed Mr about it and where we get it, etc. For our size yard we use 3 bags in spring and 3 in fall, so a total cost of approx $228 for the year. I'm sure they spend more than that with the service they've been using. It used to cost $150 for 6 bags, but last year it went up a lot when fertilizer prices went up so high and it's still up there. This year we bought all 6 bags in the spring, just to save a stop at the co-op place that sells it. We are fast approaching the Labor Day application and won't need to pick any up.

I had to email the Dept of Revenue assessor again. I had let him know that I received his USB drive of "sales data" and still wished to proceed with the appeal, and to let me now if there is anything else I need to do. He replied back asking if I have a fee appraisal I'd like to include. No, I do not (i am not paying for an appraisal) and if there were any of the other sales in the data (not picked as comps) I'd like them to look at as comparable to my home.......well, since you asked...and I dumped him with a big email and a bunch of info, LOL.

But, I also told him it's pretty impossible for me to figure out. When their "analysis" formulas can take 5 homes in the $440,000 to $1.2 million range and make them all equal, it makes it pretty hard to figure out. I did find 2 homes, in my area that sold and looked up their listing info/pics. Similar homes, on the river, blah blah. Both now appraised at a bit LESS than they sold for and less then my house. One of them is 5 acres, low bank river w/access, almost same sf, with a big detached shop and it's assessed at less than my house, in an area closer to the city, which is more desirable and has higher home prices then where we are. The other one is also very similar in size/characteristics and the house/building assessment part is way lower than mine.

Paper shredding

And Monday it is, again. I'm liking my new schedule of starting work at 8 instead of 7:30 (which is 7am where my office is). Gives me more time to chill a bit after getting up. I've even been outside and got all the flowers watered in anticipation of mid 90's today. Dh is out mowing already.

I'm still working on throwing out (and shredding when necessary) old papers. Some I had in bins in spare bedroom closet. Some I had filled in this box, underneath my desk. I'm happy to say this box is finally empty today. 

I still have more to do, inside my desk drawers and cupboard, but not too much is left. Most of what is left just needs to be shredded up. Most of the papers I had are from both my jobs from working from home. Several years old, back when I had one monitor and had to print out most things to work on/from. Now I don't print out very much at all anymore. I also just shredded a big stack of old printer checks from my side job. The bank account isn't even active anymore, but I still feel safer shredding. They were checks I couldn't use from years ago. My side job boss ordered checks to send to me and accidentally ordered checks for a dot matrix type printer (good god, are those still even used anymore? LOL). I put them in my box to be shredded "later" and "later" is finally now, haha. I'm getting there! I've filled up the shredder container 3 times this morning. All the paper stuff just got boxed up when we moved (both times) and then I just ignored it, stored away in a box or bin. I hate paperwork, LOL. The only paper I like is paper money!

I was thinking the other day, when I went to get my mail out of the mailbox, that it seems like now, the USPS pretty much exists to just mail junk mail, doesn't it? If business's ever figure out a better way to bombard us with junk mail, the USPS will probably die. I maybe get 2 pieces of actual mail a month. I have everything set up paperless. I rarely mail anything myself. Even when I had to ship a package, I usually just use UPS. DH usually walks down and gets the mail and then sets it on the kitchen bar countertop. Same day I look through what it is (usually just a couple pieces a day) and it immediately goes into the garbage. When we made our big move over here, we had boxes and boxes of paperwork from all the years dh was self employed. Everything that we could legally get rid of (past the IRS audit years) I took to an office supply store to be shredded. There was just too much. We tried starting to shred it ourselves and quickly burned out our shredder. It was quicker, easier and less cost (of buying a new shredder) to just pay to have it shredded.

Boss is off this week. Again, most of what I am dealing with on her behalf is just explaining processes and hand holding through them, LOL. I can handle that.

An old memory

Our weather is heading back up into the too hot zone. Now up into the 80 and then back up into the mid to high 90's this week. Bleh. Hopefully that is the last of it and it's supposed to be down into 70's next week. 

I kept busy yesterday morning. Watered outside flowers, made hummingbird nectar, washed sheets, emptied the dishwasher. The afternoon, not much of anything. Took a nap at 2 o'clock. DH has been wanting/craving nachos, but I don't have any ingredients for that. In fact it's been like 2 years since I even bought hamburger, other than some premade patties. So, we got in the car and ran into town to the grocery store and got the tortilla chips and fixings. I'm sure today he's going to be saying how his pancreas hurts.

DAN was back on Friday again. Again for maybe 2 hours at the most. Basically digging up some rocks by hand with a crow bar and putting them in the bucket of his "tool cat" machine while his wife "ran" it. I wonder at what point he's going to realize that is pointless.....the ground is all rocks. You dig up one, there's another one underneath it, LOL. You either just gotta smooth it all out as best as can with a dozer or bring in a bunch of fill on top. His 2 hours a week of work is putting him on par to be done in about 25 years, I guess. And here's some hypocrisy at it's finest: DAN has no trespassing signs on the sides of his property, one side pointing at our house, side windows (my living room has a bow window so there is a side window in the bow that looks right at his sign) and one pointing at lot 6. Then 2 out front facing the street at each corner. Yet, he parked his truck and trailer in front of lot 6 (so technically lot 6's property, as we all own across the street to the other side of it) because that's where the shade was. 

I was watching something on the computer about tics and tourette's syndrome. It reminded me of my dd when she was little. She had some tics when she was little. I first noticed it when she was around 5 or 6. We'd be sitting next to each other on the couch in the evenings watching tv and every so often she'd like flex her stomach. I never saw her do it any other time other than when we were sitting there relaxed watching tv. It wasn't every time and it wasn't usually constant, but sometimes would be worse than others and I'd just rest my hand on her stomach. That stopped at some point, maybe 6 months to a year. Then a year or so later she started a different one. She'd wrinkle up her nose. Again, this was nothing regular. DH and her brother never even noticed it for the longest time. I asked her pediatrician about it and he told me his best advice is to ignore it. Don't bring it up to her because that usually makes it worse and it's very likely she'll grow out of it. So, I didn't and I didn't even mention it do dh and son. If they weren't noticing it, all the better, but then they finally noticed it, so I told them what the dr said, so none of us ever mentioned it to her. It wasn't very often she did it. At some point, I'd say around 3rd or 4th grade the nose crinkling faded out and overlapped with her starting to make little head jerks every so often. We still said nothing and that didn't last very long at all and then she never showed anymore signs of it. In fact I kind of forgot about that, until I watched that video about it. It's such an interesting condition and I'm sure glad it turned out to be nothing serious for her.

My head hurt

Finally, I can reply to comments again.  I could log into my "dashboard" and see there are comments, but when I click on view blog, it takes me to my blog page, but wants me to sign in again and then takes me right back to my dashboard. It was just a viscous circle, but now it's working again.

How in the world is it Friday again already?! I know I had Monday off, but geez. In doing payroll yesterday I see my boss is off again all next week. Good for her. And she has a fun week planned with her family at their vacation cabin.

I did Teams with my half sister to try to help her with her bookkeeping questions. She was able to share her screen. Wow! What an absolute clusterf.....! (Not her fault). I told her I can't imagine trying to do these books and even less could imagine actually trying to run this small company. It gave me a headache in 15 minutes trying to work it out. I told her I'd have to think on it and do some debit and credit scribbling on some paper to figure this out and how to explain it to her. She thinks she is recording some transactions wrong and she is not, but it's how to explain to her how it's working out ok. 

Anyway, it was fun seeing her (on screen LOL) and chatting with her. Only being half sisters, we still look so much alike. Same white hair, LOL. But the funny part is I have always assumed I got that from my grandpa on mom's side. He was white very early. Me and all my cousins (skipped a generation) are all white early, too. Now my half sis and my's father and his family - dark hair still into their old age, very little gray. But, one time a lady complimented me on my hair and said you must be Scottish. I said yes...and she said that is common with Scottish heritage and our dad is Scottish. My great grandparents emigrated from Scotland when he was a toddler. So, maybe I do get the white from that side. There is a picture of one of her daughters as a teenager that looks so much like me as a teenager, LOL.

My mom called again yesterday, right after lunch. It was constant "are you eating dinner now? did I catch you eating dinner?"  She's not mentioning her parents, but now is in a mindset that she is just staying where she is temporarily and will be leaving "to go back" soon. I guess my uncle called her last night and she was saying the same stuff, that she had her car, etc. He called me up and said you probably told me this, but where she lives now...she can't leave can she? I said no, it's a locked place, she's not going anywhere. The change in where/when she is living in her head seems to be coming on a lot stronger recently and I'm anticipating in the near future she's probably not going to know who I am anymore, or at least as much.

Comments here

Blogger is not letting me comment on my own post from yesterday. I wanted to reply :)

To Linda - I have no idea how they come up with their assessments. Seems to be some magical formula, called Market Regression Analysis, with all the sales data. I'm guessing they did not actually drive by and look at the house when  reassessed this 2 year period, otherwise why would they need to come out and drive by again? From some news articles I've read about property tax assessments in other states, some counties hire a company to figure out all the assessments with a computer program.

Treaders - I honestly could care less if others went up because of my appeal. It's not my fault that the Dept of Rev assessors office didn't do their job right in the first place (if they did then raise them). Why should I be assessed what they consider a correct amount and the others don't have to be assessed at the correct amounts? Of course I am going to question why mine is so much higher and went up such a higher % then everyone else's did. If the explanation is mine is correct and theirs is not, oh well. Bottom line is everyone's should be accurate, so that it's a fair system to everyone.

We got a nice rain again yesterday afternoon, so I got another break from watering flowers. By the end of summer I get really tired of watering every day, LOL. 

I had a phone call with one of our newer employees this morning. I didn't realize she was English and she has a lovely British accent. 

It's payroll processing day. So far so good. It is now with my boss for review and hopefully I can hit submit soon and have that out of my way for the day. I see that she is off again all next week. I am glad to see she has been finally taking some time off, too. We both need it and I'm sure she much more than me. My side job I'm still working on a little bit each month is messed up. I can't get into Quickbooks and it's been like over a week now trying to resolve. I have no idea why, (makes zero sense) but apparently my side job boss has to actually take her laptop into the office to have the issue fixed. Again makes zero sense to me as the program is stored on their main server! I'm not questioning it. She's kind of checked out of dealing with most of it it and honestly, it's not really my problem to worry about anymore. Ive asked 3 times about it now. Supposedly she is going into the office on Monday with her laptop.

I didn't get to Teams chat with my half sis yesterday. She got delayed with something and then we were going to do it when she got home at 4 but when she got home her mother in law and sister in law were there, that she wasn't expecting. I had told her I'm not available on Thurs, due to payroll, but if I get it all done here before lunch I'll text her I am available. 

While dh and I like having guests every so often, we're realizing we don't like it often, LOL. 8 guest visits in the last 11 months and 6 of those in the last 3 months. We're quiet and boring - we apparently like being by ourselves more, haha. And then our friend from MO was commenting she needs to visit again. I'm tired, LOL.

Silly boss

I'm back to work and trying set up and pay bills, except this strange name/account kept popping up as my "payables" account. I see this name got set up as a new vendor and also as an account on our chart of accounts. Wrong! LOL. It's only a vendor. I see it got set up Friday when I was off. I emailed to my boss to ask about it/tell her I fixed it and she's like what did I do? I explained it to her and she replies "well then!....sorry!". I replied back I can't leave you alone for a minute LOL! she said especially not 2 days! haha.

Then just now I get an email from my boss (mind you, I returned to work yesterday) saying she approved some expense reports, needs a check for so and so. Hopes I had a good time off....I reply back I'm confused...I took care of this yesterday and it shows you printed the check....She replied back oops! She had set up the email delayed send and accidentally chose Wednesday instead of Tuesday. LOL.

I got a reply back from the assessor that said it will be the end of the month before they can get a site review scheduled, so in the meantime I can look over the data. LOL. I've already looked over your stupid data. He told me our stick built house (just the house, not the shop) is assessed at $196.76 per square foot. Ok...so our neighbors down at the end of our street built their stick built house the same year as we did, so you'd think their assessed value per square foot would also have to be $196.76? Nope. Their total assessed value PLUS with 2 detached garages added last year, is less than that. And I'm writing notes to myself about it all. Like ok...go ahead and use these comps on MY house, but you sure better be using these comps on my neighbors house, too, then!

Other notes I'm making - my neighbors house is a concrete log home, 5112 sq ft. The info on the company website who constructed the concrete log shell of their home has it on their website that it cost between $140-$160 per square foot to build, just the shell. This does not include or build the foundation, floors, roof, doors, windows, interior finish, electrical, pluming or the like. And the assessed value on their home works out to $118 per square foot. Granted the shell of their log home is only for the main floor of 2556 sqft, doesn't include the basement, but the basement and everything else to actually finish the home is for 5112 sq ft. All the rooms inside these homes are frame constructed, just like our house. 

Either these homes are way under assessed or my home is being over assessed - either way not fair to me at all.

Appeal reply

On Friday I received the USB drive in the mail with all the "residential sales data" apparently used to calculate our homes assessed value. I looked it over on Saturday. It has over 1200 sales, in 2020 and 2021 and is in our county and the 2 counties north of us, a range of over 200 miles away. One comp is 209 miles away, another is 198 miles away. One is 80 miles. The other 2 are in my county. These 5 homes sold for a range between almost 1.2 million and $440k, yet their formulas can magically make them all in an equal "adjusted" price range, LOL.

I really don't give a crap about their comps - my issue is the disparity between the % my land and buildings were increased compared to everyone around me. There are many many river lots in our county and NONE of them increased as ours did. My guess is they are going to try to say, well, in 2021 lots 4 and 5 sold for $x, so your's increased. Ok....so then why didn't all the other nearby river lots not also increase that much? If I'm being comp'd on homes 200 miles away, why wouldn't river lots a mile away use our neighbors purchase price as a comp as well? (None of the sales data included raw land sales, unfortunately, so I don't know for sure what DAN paid. Since my property has a home on it, I was only allowed to ask for residential sales data, not raw land data)

Here's an excerpt of what I included in my appeal paperwork. The 2 neighborhoods mentioned are less than 2 miles from me:

The lots on L. Lane that are also approx. 2 acres were previously valued at the same as our 2 acre lots at E. Lane were valued at – in the $70,000 range. Now their lots are valued in the $117,000 range. The approx. 2 acre lots in W. neighborhood were also previously valued at $70,00, like ours, and are now all valued at around $115,000 and ours increased to almost $150,000.

If you take a few nice homes in my area, including our neighbors and look on like zillow or realtor.com, these homes have always been estimated to be a higher market value then my home, by $100-$300k....yet my home is assessed way more than they are.

I guess I will just email the assessor back this morning letting him know I received the USB drive and ok..now what? Just not sure how to word it, LOL. 

My mom called last night after dinner, confused and feeling a little bit anxious, but not too bad. She's also starting to think she still has a car and has mentioned that a few times in the past week or so. She was also thinking she's just staying "somewhere" and will be going back to where she normally stays, soon. 

Back to work today. It was nice having a couple days off. I need more of those, LOL.